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Source: The post is based on the article “MGNREGA, NCRB, insurance data point to unabated strain at middle and lower ends of income distribution” published in Indian Express on 31st August 2022.
What is the News?
After contracting in 2020-21, the Indian economy is expected to recover sharply in 2021-22. This year, the Reserve Bank of India expects the Indian economy to grow at 7.2%. It will make India one of the fastest-growing economies in the world during this period.
However, beyond growth numbers, there are still indicators of the unabated pain stemming from the pandemic and the continuing distress in parts of the economy.
What are the indicators that show that there is still distress in the Indian Economy?
MGNREGA data: In 2019-20, the year prior to the pandemic, 7.88 crore individuals worked under the MGNREGA Scheme. In 2020-21, the first year of the pandemic, this number rose to 11.19 crore.
– This year, 6.29 crore individuals have already worked under the scheme, as compared to 6.21 crore in the entire year of 2014-15.
– This growing reliance on MGNREGA likely indicates that other, more remunerative employment opportunities remain limited.
NCRB data: According to the National Crime Records Bureau(NCRB) report, there has been a rise in suicides by daily wage earners. Also, in 2021, daily wage earners accounted for a fourth of suicides in the country. This points to the economic distress at the lower end of the income distribution scale.
Sales of Vehicles: As per CRISIL, sales of two-wheelers were lower than their 2019-20 levels by almost a quarter. Similarly, sales of cars priced below Rs 10 lakh grew by a mere 7% in 2021-22, while those priced above Rs 10 lakh grew by 38%.
What is the significance of this data?
The bigger picture that emerges from this data is one of pain at the lower and middle levels of the income distribution.
Hence, policymakers must be mindful of the highly uneven nature of the recovery and take measures to address the distress of the most vulnerable.
